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Post 14:08 Web 2.0’s (unrecognised?) debt to punk

The effects of Punk have never gone away. Punk acts like the Sex Pistols now considered important artists, in their own way.

And the punk ideology has never gone away. In fact even a band like The Go-Betweens, whose sweet pop music could never be described as having any punk aesthetic, openly admitted that they owe a huge debt to punk.

That’s because they couldn’t really play, couldn’t really sing, didn’t have the equipment to allow high production values or the expertise to seem professional … but just went ahead and made music anyway. Punk had shown them that it was possible to do so and that liberating oneself from the perceived learnedness and expertise was no barrier to making art or media.

Now let’s fast forward to the Noughties and Web 2.0. All over the world, people are starting podcasts, making videos, writing blogs … even if they have no idea how to do it, little technology, poor production values … you can see what I mean.

I wonder if in all the frenzy about Web 2.0, the fact that only 30 years ago, pre-punk, individuals did not often think about making their own media has been overlooked. I find that my own content creation efforts (those beyond my writing, anyway) are increasingly infused by the punk idea that it’s better to try as an amateur than be silent as an expert.